


A Unit of Two

by sunnie0914



Category: Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: Fluff, Gen, Parabatai Bond, Parabatai Feels, Platonic bed sharing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-25
Updated: 2017-01-25
Packaged: 2018-09-19 20:02:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,216
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9458375
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sunnie0914/pseuds/sunnie0914
Summary: After everything that had happened, Jace isn't ready for the nightmares still waiting for him in his sleep. Alec steps in and offers a Sleep Now rune with the promise to wake him should the nightmares come.Set immediately after 2x04





	

**Author's Note:**

> Let's face it, Jace has been through a lot of shit in the last few episodes and it all spans just a few days. He's been ready to die, or at least not care if he does, pretty much since the start of the second season. So after all that, the thing his body probably needs most is sleep, even if his mind isn't on the same page after everything he's seen and done.
> 
> So this is my short take on it, completely un-beta'd, sorry for any mistakes.

A Unit of Two

 

Alec carried Isabelle to the infirmary and placed her down in one of the beds. Jace had been trailing along shortly after him. One of the Institute’s doctors came to heal Isabelle and Alec pulled up a seat beside her bed. She reached out and held his hand, apologizing, and tearing up. She couldn’t believe that she tried to kill him and repeated over and over that she didn’t mean anything she said while she was possessed. Alec knew she was lying because it had to be somewhere there in her subconscious for the demon to find. Alec let her believe that he believed her anyways. He reassured her many times that he understood and knew that she wouldn’t try to kill him if she’d been in control. Jace joined them, placing a hand on Alec’s shoulder. Alec looked up at Jace, taking in how hollow and awful he looked. Wordlessly, Jace pulled up a second chair beside Alec’s to sit next to Izzy.

The doctor went to work healing Izzy, sedating her to help her heal. Even once she was asleep, Alec didn’t want to leave her side. In some ways, he was putting off seeing Clary and having to deal with all of the guilt he was trying desperately not to feel. “You should go and get some sleep too,” he told Jace.

“No, I’m staying here with you and Izzy,” Jace shook his head.

“I’ve been acting head of this Institute. Do you really think I don’t know what I’m doing when I send someone to the City of Bones for imprisonment? No one likes to talk about what the Silent Brothers are capable of doing to the prisoners,” Alec’s eyes never left Isabelle’s sleeping form as he spoke. “So, you should go and get some sleep.”

Jace nodded but stayed a while longer before departing the infirmary. Alec wasn’t sure how long he stayed at Isabelle’s bedside. The Institute was quiet and empty by the time he got up to leave, rolling his head around and messaging the stiffness in his neck. He looked in on Lydia in the infirmary as well before leaving. She was also sleeping peacefully.

Alec silently walked through the Institute towards the living quarters. He stopped outside of Jace’s room. Their bond had been mostly healed when Jace brought Alec back at Magnus’s place. Still, Alec felt a distance from Jace. At first he thought it was Jace guarding himself from Alec so he wouldn’t feel Jace’s pain while imprisoned. It should have gone away now that Jace was out, unless Jace was still in pain and keeping it from Alec. Before he could stop himself, he was slowly turning the handle on Jace’s door, just to have a look inside he told himself. He was surprised to see Jace still away. He quirked an eyebrow in question. Jace just shrugged. In another split second decision, Alec entered the room and closed the door behind him.

“I thought you’d be asleep by now,” Alec approached the end of the bed.

“I wish I was but every time I close my eyes,” Jace paused, shaking his head, “It’s all catching up to me, Alec.”

Alec pulled his stele out of his pocket. “Have you tried a Sleep Now rune?” Alec held up his stele as an offering.

Jace’s eyes bored into him, sad and hollow. “Honestly, I’m afraid that if I use it and it works, I’ll just have nightmares.”

“Then I’ll wake you up,” Alec stated not as an offer or a question. He reached down and undid the laces of his boots, leaving them at the end of the bed. He undid the buttons of his shirts, taking it off to just have a tank top on. He laid it over the arm of the couch in Jace’s room before adding his jeans to the pile as well. “Get comfortable,” he instructed as he carried his stele over to the other side of the bed and pulled back the covers to get in as well. Jace stared at him for a hard second before turning on his side with his back to Alec, curling into a fetal position. His hand was under his pillow and probably on a small dagger but Alec wasn’t going to call him on it. Alec found space on the back of his shoulder and burned the mark into his skin.

In a matter of seconds, Jace’s breathing evened out and he was asleep. Satisfied, Alec turned on his side away from Jace, placing his stele on the night stand and closing his eyes as well. He half expected to have to wake Jace up sometime in the middle of the night. However, nothing ever came. Instead Alec woke to the light streaming in through Jace’s window, illuminating the wall Alec was facing. Jace’s forehead was against his back, between his shoulder blades and his hand on his ribs right where his parabatai rune sat. As soon as Alec shifted in the slightest so that Jace knew he was awake, Jace was moving back to his side of the bed and facing away from Alec.

“Hey,” Alec’s voice was a bit raspy with his dry throat, “Come back here.” Alec was shifting around to face Jace. He was finally feeling warm and whole, completely connected to Jace through their parabatai bond.

Reluctantly, Jace turned to look at Alec. Alec reach back behind him to grab his stele and immediately went to work, retracing one of Jace’s healing runes. It had the instant effect on the cuts, scrapes, and bruises on his hands and face. He was back to looking like his former self, without the cocky smile. “Th-thanks,” Jace said before clearing his throat, “Not just for the rune but also for last night. I probably wouldn’t have been able to sleep otherwise.”

Alec didn’t reply but instead remained watching Jace, taking stock of how he really was. If he asked, he knew Jace would always say that he was fine, not to worry about him. Alec knew that growing up, no one ever worried about Jace and in some ways it was still new to him to have people, like Alec, worry about him after all these years living with the Lightwoods. He reached out and pressed two fingers against Jace’s parabatai rune. It sent a jolt of warmth and calmness through both of them. Alec could almost physically feel Jace’s shield blocking him from some of his emotions. Slowly Jace took down the walls for the pain and anguish and despair and loneliness to sweep over Alec. He countered it with warmth and courage and love. He could see Jace physically relaxing and letting go of the tension keeping the pain inside. Alec knew Jace could feel his guilt as well, countering it with his own forgiveness and love. When they seemed content, he withdrew his fingers. “When you keep things from me, I can’t help you and that’s what we’re supposed to do: help each other,” Alec reminded him.

Jace simply nodded. They laid there in content silence a while longer before they decided it was time to get up and face the new day and its challenges, now, once again a unit of two.


End file.
